Agriculture
Agricultural production
Sugar mill to resume operation
A $360 million sugarcane factory will start operating next month after stopping last June due to a shortage of raw material. The Rui Feng sugarcane mill opened last April with capacity to produce nearly half a million tons a year for export, mainly to Europe and ...
Chea Vannak
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/34341/sugar-mill-to-resume-operation/
Tensions between Chinese firm, ethnic villagers mount
Ethnic Kuoy villagers in Preah Vihear’s Chey Sen district filed a complaint against Chinese sugar company Rui Feng on Tuesday after a long-simmering land dispute almost erupted into violence last week. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/tensions-between-chinese-firm-ethnic-villagers-mount
Sugar plantation victims release demands
Representatives of 175 families in Koh Kong province’s Sre Ambel and Botum Sakor districts have released their final demands to end their 10-year land dispute with Koh Kong Sugar Industry (KSI) and Koh Kong Plantation. The families are asking for two hectares of land to be ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/33980/sugar-plantation-victims-release-demands/
Minister claims land disputes over: ‘we have solved them all’
Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Wednesday repeated his claims that forest crimes and land disputes sparked by sprawling commercial farms run by wealthy businessmen and foreign corporations had decreased or were mostly over, claims that rights groups dispute. ...
Khy Sovuthy
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/minister-claims-land-disputes-over-we-have-solved-them-all-122977/
Locals raising funds for wildlife watering holes
A Kampong Speu community is looking to raise money to build three watering holes for wildlife, especially the endangered banteng, for the upcoming hot season after a nearby sugarcane plantation allegedly filled in existing streams. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/locals-raising-funds-wildlife-watering-holes
Chhin chides ministry on ELCs
Deputy Prime Minister Bin Chhin, the Kingdom’s top authority in charge of resolving land disputes, slammed the Ministry of Agriculture over “shameful” irregularities in granting economic land concessions at the Environment Ministry’s annual meeting yesterday.During yesterday’s meeting, Chhin accused the Ministry of Agriculture of granting ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/chhin-chides-ministry-elcs
EU pressure effective?
In recent years, communities displaced by sugar plantations have attempted to reclaim their land by targeting the plantations’ investors and buyers overseas, but a study published last week in the peer-reviewed Journal of Civil Society suggests such efforts may disappoint. ...
Jack Davies
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/eu-pressure-effective
Pigs call first dibs on feed
AGRO-Industrial conglomerate Mong Reththy Group inaugurated its first feed mill on Friday, with the factory’s production line aimed foremost at supplying the group’s industrial pig-rearing operation, a company executive said yesterday. ...
Cheng Sokhorng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/pigs-call-first-dibs-feed
Fresh push for contract farming
Frustrated with the failure of a $27 million emergency loan package to help rice farmers find a fair market price for their crop and stem the tide of smuggled paddy across the borders, Agriculture Minister Veng Sokhon is flogging a new model for the nation’s ...
Cheng Sokhorng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/fresh-push-contract-farming
Food stockpiles depress prices
Record stockpiles of food will keep worldwide prices low for 2017 and much could depend on China’s huge stocks of many commodities, Dutch food and agri financing bank Rabobank predicted yesterday, painting a dour picture for Cambodia’s food exporters struggling against low prices. ...
May Kunmakara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/32346/food-stockpiles-depress-prices/
Pepper plantation to tip the scales
A local subsidiary of a South Korean confectionary giant is investing $40 million to develop what it claims will be the world’s largest pepper plantation on a sprawling 1,000-hectare estate in eastern Cambodia, a company executive said yesterday. ...
Cam McGrath and Cheng Sokhorng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/pepper-plantation-tip-scales
Tobacco turns over a new leaf
Agriculture officials and struggling smallholder tobacco farmers are cautiously hopeful that tariff exemptions granted under a new trade agreement with Vietnam will lift sagging demand for their crops. ...
Cheng Sokhorng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/tobacco-turns-over-new-leaf
Moo Moo plans more milk
American-owned dairy farm Moo Moo Farms is looking to markedly increase production of its raw – unpasteurized – milk and increase its current herd of 25 cows. The farm, located in Kandal province, began operations earlier this year. According to a statement from the Ministry of ...
May Kunmakara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/31519/moo-moo-plans-more-milk/
Sub-decree could back evicted villagers’ claims
A little-publicized sub-decree signed in July and discovered by the Post yesterday in an NGO database raises questions as to whether the eviction on Saturday of six ethnic Kuoy families in Preah Vihear was in contravention of an order by Prime Minister Hun Sen. ...
Jack Davies and Kong Meta
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sub-decree-could-back-evicted-villagers-claims
Kampot pepper strong, rivals struggle
Kampot pepper sales both locally and internationally have continued to be strong since gaining coveted geographical indication (GI) status from the European Union in February, while domestic pepper competitors have complained of falling prices, industry figures said yesterday. Kampot Pepper Promotion Association president, Nguon Lay, told ...
Sok Chan
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/30743/kampot-pepper-strong--rivals-struggle/
Plan to certify organic quality
GIZ Cambodia, a branch of Germany’s international development agency, signed an agreement yesterday with local organic food retailer Khmer Organic Cooperative to provide technical support to develop organic vegetable production and to assist the firm in obtaining certification for its products. The agreement calls for the ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/plan-certify-organic-quality
Thais to tackle farm barriers
The Thai Commerce Ministry is looking into existing trade and investment barriers for its “innovative farm products” with Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, with the long-term goal of removing them, according to the Bangkok Post. ...
Sum Manet
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/29750/thais-to-tackle-farm-barriers/
Rice harvest soon but still no help
With less than three months to the rice harvesting season in November, panic has now set in among rice millers and producers who feel less confident as the days go by that they will be bailed out by government emergency loans ‒ to help them ...
Chea Vannak
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/29597/rice-harvest-soon-but-still-no-help/
Small pig farmers edged out
Cambodia’s small family-run pig farming businesses seem to be roughing it out in an unpredictable market with fluctuating pork prices while facing stiff competition from the illegal flood of cheap imported live pigs from neighboring countries. To add salt to their wounds, the high price ...
Sok Chan
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/28905/small-pig-farmers-edged-out/
The deforestation continues
The high-pitched whine of chainsaws drowned out the sound of birds and bugs you usually hear during any trek through Prey Lang forest. What was once an area full of animals scurrying under the shade of gargantuan trees is now largely populated by stumps and ash. The ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/28863/the-deforestation-continues/
Families to receive land titles
Prime Minister Hun Sen has decided to cut land from an economic land concession (ELC) and a rubber plantation to grant land titles to more than 1,000 villagers in Tbong Khmum province’s Memot district, according to the Land Management Ministry. ...
Ven Rathavong
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/28859/families-to-receive-land-titles/
Smallholder farmers to face land shortage, study finds
Smallholder farmers have a crucial role to play in tempering the growing pains of Cambodia’s transition to an industrialised economy, but unless something is done, they will face a land shortage in the coming years, according to the authors of a new report. They will ...
Jack Davies
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/smallholder-farmers-face-land-shortage-study-finds
Kampong Speu protesters reject NGO’s help
In defiance of an order by Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Khoun Sreng, more than 100 people protested outside the offices of Equitable Cambodia (EC) yesterday. They held signs denouncing the NGO, as community representatives inside submitted a letter withdrawing their consent for the group to represent ...
Jack Davies and Touch Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/kampong-speu-protesters-reject-ngos-help
Mango exports to S. Korea stalled
In December, South Korea announced that it planned to import dried mangos from Cambodia and the news was heralded as a sign that the country’s lackluster mango export sector was improving. However, a lack of machinery in the Kingdom has meant that the South Korean ...
Chea Vannak
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/28400/mango-exports-to-s--korea-stalled/